Vancouver renters protest black mould and units 'not safe' to live in

Oct 24, 2023

Residents of four rental properties in east Vancouver gathered outside the offices of a local developer Tuesday to protest what they alleged are unsafe living conditions and poor building maintenance, citing poor repairs, pest infestations, and accessibility problems.

The three- and four-storey buildings, built in the early 1980s, are owned by residential developer Cressey Development Group.

“I had an environmental inspection about three weeks ago, saying that because of two different strains of toxic mould, the place is uninhabitable,” said Chris Merpaw, who recently moved into a two-bedroom unit owned by Cressey at 1748 East Pender St. and who participated in Tuesday’s protest.

“The apartment unit is not safe for occupancy based on the air sampling and visible observations,” according to a copy of the environmental report that Merpaw provided to Postmedia.

“There was visible mould growth in the living room area of the apartment and visible mould growth was behind the baseboard and on the drywall,” according to the report.

Sample results from inside the apartment had five times more mould than the air outside.

Scott Cressey, president of Cressey Development, said in a statement the company was taking residents’ concerns “very seriously” and had paid for additional staff and training at the end of September.

“We take responsibility for not communicating earlier, but have started immediate assessments and necessary repairs,” he said, highlighting that the company had arranged to relocate “one tenant to a newer downtown rental building.”

Cressey has annual revenues of nearly $35 million, according to the business database LexisNexis.

Residents at the other buildings owned by Cressey and managed by Cascadia Apartment Rentals have reported similar issues, saying they had to deal with flooding and poor repairs. None were willing to go on the record with their complaints, fearing they could face eviction or other retaliation in Vancouver’s tight rental market.

The addresses of the other buildings in question are 2326 Eton St., 1436 Graveley St., and 2328 Cambridge St.

“I am trying to be the voice for all of the other people in their buildings that can’t speak up because they’re low-income families or immigrants new to Canada that don’t want to speak out or fear that they can’t because they don’t have the same kind of safety net,” Merpaw said.

Just over a dozen residents showed up for Tuesday’s protest. They tried to deliver a list of demands to Cressey’s head office but the elevators in the building had been disabled and stairwell doors were locked.

Cascadia Apartment Rentals, which manages the rental properties on behalf of Cressey, did not respond to a request for comment.

Merpaw this week gave Postmedia a tour of his apartment, which is now being repaired to fix the mould problem. Furniture was piled in the middle of the living room, there were holes cut into baseboard and walls exposing mould and rotting wood, and strips of laminate flooring — easily pulled loose due to water damage — were scattered around the apartment.

He pointed to several places where water damage had only been painted over.

Merpaw, who recently returned from Ukraine where he worked in logistics for the non-profit Doctors Without Borders, paid the $460 inspection fee himself and said building management refused to reimburse him.

He said his apartment would regularly flood when it rained.

“I talked to the neighbour and she says the previous tenants had had problems with flooding,” he said.

Merpaw has been offered a temporary one-bedroom unit at a Cressley-owned building in Yaletown, while management works on his East Pender suite. He said the management company purchased an air mattress for the otherwise unfurnished flat. His roommate was forced to sleep in a separate, ground-floor unit which several people apparently had access to, including contractors who would come into the unit to use the bathroom. His roommate has since found alternative housing.

The pair still pay their monthly rent of roughly $2,700, despite the uninhabitable conditions, for the unit on East Pender.

[Top photo: Renters protest outside Cressey Development Group offices in Vancouver. PHOTO BY NICK PROCAYLO /Postmedia]